The biggest of the five villages and the only one with real sand: an old town of striped churches and lanes on one side of a headland, a long beach and the station on the other, and a fourteen-metre concrete giant holding up the cliff at the end.
Monterosso is the easiest of the Cinque Terre: flat-ish, with sand, plenty of beds and the most restaurants. It is also the busiest by day.
The village has two halves joined by a tunnel under the San Cristoforo headland. The old town is a tangle of lanes around the striped Gothic church of San Giovanni Battista, with the old fortifications above. The newer side, Fegina, has the station, hotels and the longest sandy beach on the coast.
On the hill between them, the Capuchin convent keeps a Crucifixion attributed to Van Dyck and has the best view of the village. At the west end of Fegina, the Giant, a 14-metre concrete Neptune made in 1910 for a seaside villa, still props up the rocks despite wartime bomb damage.
Monterosso celebrates its lemon groves with a festival in mid-May, and in June its anchovy festival fries the catch on the seafront. Fegina has paid lidos, with free strips between them.
An easy day: beach in the morning, convent at lunchtime, old town in the evening.
Walk west along the beach from the station to the Neptune statue on the rocks.
Pick a lido or one of the free stretches of Fegina beach.
Climb the lane over San Cristoforo to the convent and the view of both halves.
Through the tunnel to the striped church and the old lanes.
Dinner of fried anchovies and a glass of local white by the old town's beach.
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Regional trains along the coast stop at Fegina; hop-on boats call from late March to early November.
The most hotels of the five, and the only village where you can arrive by car with a parking garage.
Paths to Vernazza and over Punta Mesco start here; both close after rain and rockfall.
Cinque Terre practical notes →Photographs from Wikimedia Commons and Pexels under their licences.
